At the intersection of academics and innovation lie Champaign and Urbana. When it comes to success in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields, few colleges can claim to be on the same level as the University of Illinois. The list of Illini alumni in these areas is long and distinguished, and includes names like Fazlur Rahman Khan (structural engineer for groundbreaking skyscrapers like the John Hancock Center in Chicago) and Martin Eberhard (co-founder of Tesla Motors). In information technology and computer science in particular, Illinois excels. From famous figures like Larry Ellison and Marc Andreessen to lesser-known —

Including the phrase “the leaders and best” in your school’s fight song is a pretty bold move. But when it comes to Michigan, it’s not just idle boasting. From its winged helmets to “The Big House,” from Fielding Yost’s “Point a Minute” football teams to Tom Brady and Charles Woodson, the university’s athletics have always stood out. And Michigan excels in many other areas, too — auto engineering, alternative energy and adaptive technologies, to name a few. These LiveBIG stories demonstrate how Michigan continues to be among the “leaders and best” in many important respects: For Michigan professor, computer science

Thanks to Jason Mars, “Siri” could get a whole lot more effective in the years to come. An assistant professor of computer science at the University of Michigan, Mars and his team of researchers built their own intelligent assistant, named Sirius, which features voice-command and image-matching capabilities. They released Sirius in March 2015 to the rest of the world so other researchers could examine how to improve intelligent assistants too. “We designed an open platform for intelligent assistants like Siri, Cortana, Google Now,” Mars said. “And it made a really nice splash. These kinds of infrastructures were locked up at